PTC Presents FIND AND SIGN 1/13-28

Pioneer Theatre Company will present the next production in its New Plays Initiative, the world premiere of Find and Sign by Wendy MacLeod.

Set in the New York City music industry (with a slight nod to Othello), Find and Sign takes us through the bumpy romance between an on-the-rise music executive and an idealistic public school teacher. When one of the teacher’s students turns out to be a gifted young hip-hop artist whom her boyfriend wants to “find and sign” to a recording contract, their tentative romance is complicated by a tug-of-war over the student’s future. (Contains strong language.)

The playwright, Wendy MacLeod, will be in residence at Pioneer Theatre Company during the rehearsal period of Find and Sign. MacLeod’s play The House of Yes became an award-winning Miramax film starring Parker Posey, which earned a Special Jury Award at Sundance. Juvenilia premiered at Playwrights Horizons, as did The Water Children, which was cited as the most challenging political play of 1998 by L.A. Weekly and earned six L.A. Drama Critics Circle nominations. Things Being What They Are premiered at Seattle Rep and was produced at Steppenwolf in Chicago. Her plays Sin and Schoolgirl Figure both premiered at The Goodman in Chicago, and Anvil Entertainment has optioned Schoolgirl Figure for film. A New Dramatist alumna and a graduate of the Yale School of Drama, she is the James E. Michael playwright-in-residence at Kenyon College, and has been a guest professor at Northwestern University’s film and theater departments.

Find and Sign is comprised of a six-member, all-Equity cast. Molly Ward plays Julia, whose search for romance leads her to someone she never thought she’d fall for. In New York, Ward has appeared in The Tenant (Woodshed Collective), Kin (Playwrights Horizons), Keep Your Baggage With You (Theater for the New City), Nick Jones’ Nosemaker’s Apprentice (Brick Theater), Crystal Skillman’s Nobody (RPR), End of Lines and The Shape of Metal (59E59 Theaters). Her regional credits include The Seagull and Romeo and Juliet at American Repertory Theater, Three Sisters and Othello, among many others. This is her PTC debut.

Karl Miller plays Iago, the object of Julia’s affections, the music industry executive more focused on his career than anything (or anyone) else. Miller’s New York credits include Completeness with Playwrights Horizons and columbinus with New York Theatre Workshop. His many regional credits include Completeness at South Coast Repertory, My Name Is Asher Lev with Arden Theatre, The Lieutenant of Inishmore at Signature Theatre, Passion Play, a cycle at Arena Stage, and many, many more. He won the Helen Hayes Award, Outstanding Lead Actor for Forum Theatre’s Angels in America, Part I, trained at Wittenberg University and is a resident company member with Rorschach Theatre in Washington, D.C. This is his PTC debut.

GARDNER REED plays Mona, a Vogue editor who is Julia’s beautiful roommate. Reed’s credits include The 39 Steps (Portland Stage Company), Doubt (Kansas City Rep), Henry VI and Richard III at Alabama Shakespeare Company, The Crucible (Actors Theater of Louisville), Pride and Prejudice and Les Liaisons Dangereuses for Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, and Jackie-O in Wendy MacLeod’s The House of Yes for Red Envelope Productions. This marks her PTC debut.

TERRELL DONNELL SLEDGE plays Mac, a young student of Julia’s facing the choice between college and a possible career as a hip-hop artist. Sledge played the role of Mac in New York’s Naked Angels workshop reading of Find and Sign earlier this year. Regionally he has appeared at Trinity Rep Company as Giles Corey/Mercy Lewis in The Crucible; at Commonwealth Shakespeare Company in Othello; at Long Wharf Theater in 365 Days, 365 Plays. At Brown’s Trinity Rep, his credits include The Threepenny Opera, Vieux Carre, The Lady From Dubuque, Blood Knot, The Duchess Of Malfi and many, many others. Sledge holds degrees from Yale and Brown Universities. This is his PTC debut.

Daniel Morgan Shelley plays Cal, Iago’s co-worker vying for the promotion Iago is pursuing. Shelley’s New York credits include The Man Who Ate Michael Rockefeller. Other credits include Nat Turner in Lucy Thurber’s The Insurgents at CATF directed by Lear deBessonet, Paul in MTGs experimental opera Saturnalia, the title character in OTEs production of Othello, Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, and Sam in the national tour of Addy: An American Girl Story, among many others. This is his PTC debut.

PTC’s Artistic Director Charles Morey directs the production. Morey has directed over eighty productions for PTC since he joined the theatre in 1984, including the world premieres of Touch(ed) and In, and the first regional productions of Les Misérables, The Producers, and The Vertical Hour. He is the author of nine plays including this season’s upcoming comedy Laughing Stock. He is a Fellow of the MacDowell Colony.

Scenic design is by guest artist James Wolk. Wolk’s New York designs include The President and Her Mistress, Summer of the Swans at TheatreworksUSA, Pagans at the Abingdon Theatre, Boys’ Life at Lincoln Center and Three Sisters, both directed by William H. Macy. He has been nominated for the Helen Hayes, Barrymore, and American Theatre Wing Awards. His recent PTC design credits include In, The Yellow Leaf, The Heiress, Lost in Yonkers and Is He Dead.

Pamela Scofield returns to PTC to design costumes for this production. Her recent off-Broadway credits include Almost Maine, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, A Fine and Private Place, and The Summer of ’42. She designed the National Tour and Madison Square Garden production of Cinderella starring Eartha Kitt. Television work includes several editions of The Grammy Awards. She last designed The Yellow Leaf and Touch(ed) for PTC.

Lighting design is by guest designer Dennis Parichy. Parichy’s Broadway design credits include Talley’s Folly, Burn This, The Water Engine and others. He was Resident Lighting Designer for Circle Repertory Company for twenty-five years and is currently an Associate Artist at People’s Light & Theatre Company. Past PTC credits include Sunset Boulevard, The Light in the Piazza and The Heiress.

Sound design and original compositions for the show were created by PTC resident sound designer MATTHEW TIBBS. He has previously worked as a sound designer or engineer at Portland Center Stage, Artists Repertory Theatre, Salem Repertory Theatre and Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati. Some past sound designs include Fat Pig, Proof and The Full Monty. He received his M.F.A. in Sound Design from University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music.

Pioneer Theatre Company operates under an agreement between the League of Resident Theatres (LORT) and Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States. Pioneer Theatre Company, Utah’s only fully professional theatre, performs at Roy W. and Elizabeth E. Simmons Pioneer Memorial Theatre, located on the University of Utah campus at 300 South and 1400 East in Salt Lake City, easily accessible by TRAX light rail. Free parking is also available and the theatre is equipped with an elevator, handicap parking, hearing assistance devices and other easy-access features.

PRICE:$25 - $44 in advance and $5 more when purchased the day of the performanceKids in grades K – 12 are half price on Mondays and Tuesdays